When am I ready…?

I got asked the following, which I’ve sort of answered before, but want to hit again as I’ve learned more.

I’m newly Kara keyed and wanted to
know, in your opinion, what is the minimum plus healing I should have
to run Kara?

My answer is that the numbers don’t really matter. Oh, yes, I can get into the nitty gritty. But the more I play, the more I realize I’m … not really the master of knowledge. Instead of numbers, I’ll give you a simple test.

Are you – in your opinion – a competent sole healer for at least two, preferably four or more heroic instances? Note that this doesn’t mean you tag along with four SSC-Geared partners, who run Heroic ManaTombs pantsless just for amusement. I’m talking four other players who are at best still poking their way through Kara themselves. Can you do your part of the job fairly consistently? If the answer is yes, then you are ready REGARDLESS of the actual numbers.

Now let me be honest, here. If you’re in mostly greens, I’m going to hesitate to take you. If your +heal is under 200, I’m going to hesitate – and will hesitate even if it’s up around 400. But if you’re COMPETENT at the entry tasks, then provided everyone else is willing, I’m going to try. once. Because if you’re wearing nothing but greens and still getting a party of nominally equal gear through Heroic Mana Tombs (for example) without wipes, you’ve got the skill – screw the numbers.

Same goes for on up the line, of course. If you’re comfortably doing the job at the prerequisite level, then you’re ready to start on the next one. The only trick will be convincing the group that you’re ready. And if I may recommend, just ask them to play along with a prereq run and try you. Yes, they’ll play stupid – do idiotic things just to see you dance. But if you’re ready, that’s fine. Even if you wipe, they’ll know where the break point is – and if they took you way past what they needed or not.

“Go have fun.”
QFT!
Ability is always greater than gear, but there is a breaking point.
Chances are, if you got keyed doing the instances you need to do with non-uber characters, then you are ready to start Kara.

My first raid ever was into SSC (Imagine my distress about going into *such a place* with mainly blues and some greens), with a guild that hadn’t cleared any of the SSC bosses yet. Although they had Gruul on farm, they were very, very short on paladin healers, so they basically just got me as an experiment.

I was standing there, in greens and blues, with no epics at all. And I just did my best. In the end people were very happy with my performance and I heard I definitely pulled my weight. So although having epics helps, healers can get away with being a little undergeared. As long as they are capable players.

Ofcourse, I was always out of mana at the end of the fight and I’d die if a mob merely looked my way. 😀 But hey, I didn’t care for repair bills back then. Greens didn’t cost that much. (Oh how I sometimes long for those days, especially after a long night on Azgalor trash.)

People that hold on too strict to “You must be atleast this tall to enter this ride” are at risk of losing potentially skilled players. That’s why I always give people the benefit of doubt and see what they can do. More often than not, you end up surprised. Don’t underestimate your own abilities, and always give others a chance or two to prove themselves.

Also, quoting a previous respondant, “Chances are, if you got keyed doing the instances you need to do with non-uber characters, then you are ready to start Kara.” That’s how Blizzard designed the attunements. If you can clear the attunements without getting boosted then you are ready for whatever they attune you for.

I have been reading a lot about this topic from many places. I tend to agree about skill>gear but like you mentioned earlier, there is a breaking point. I heve run as far as Kara on my hunter but rerolled Priest and changed factions. I had a similar experience to the last reply.
On the priest I am a fresh 70 wearing the primal mooncloth set and nothing else but quest rewards. I had just respecced to holy to experiment with soloing dailies when I recieved an invite to go heal Kara. Taking into account that I had never healed so much as a 5 man, I think I did fairly well.
This is one other side effect of the attunement removal process that Blizz is doing, people that have rerolled or are bringing up alts are now able to bring them along just a bit easier.
I just wanted to drop by and say thanks for the content of your blog, that along with the others I read gave me knowledge of what I needed to do to be an effective healer.
Knowledge > skill > gear

Yup, definitely. I’m a Hunter GL on Eitrigg, and I’ve started a HPriest alt to help fill out our ranks. He’s been lvled in dungeons the entire time, and got “of the Physician” for lvl 57-60, so he’s got “uber” gear, but that amounts to nothing compared to the experience I’ve gotten from lvling. He’s not quite ready for Kara yet (only 61 atm) but the experience in handling a not-so-cautious group that likes swapping aggro (they’re getting better, really!) has made me better at handling the hard times. Druid combat-res helps for those emergencies too. 🙂
oh, and my vote:
Knowledge ~= skill > gear

There is definitely a “more or less” number to be of any value healing in Karazhan. It depends on 2 things: how many healers in the raid and what is your purpose? If a group rolls with 3 healers (yuck) you can get away with very little +heal. Maybe 400 (less than 400 +heal if you’re a healer is completely unacceptable at 70 even if you’re healing regular Mech).

Now if you’re raid has 2 healers you’ve already increased the amount of +heal you need. So are you MT healing or raid healing?

If you are 1 of 2 healers and you’re MT healing the first half of Karazhan really you need 1-1.2k. Period. There’s no way you can keep up with the incoming damage with less than that. It’s a mathematic impossibility. If you’re tank is fully geared in Karazhan/BOJ gear you might have a chance on the low end. I still wouldn’t want to MT with you healing me.

If you’re raid healing and don’t need to help out a whole lot on the MT I would say 800 is your low end. Keep PoM up every 30 seconds and make sure you have a macro that pops your trinkets before every renew so it ticks for that extra bit regardless of if the trinket expired. Mana conservation will be extremely important.

I main healed kara (as one of two) with +850 heal. I find your minimum suspect for that reason.

I do admit to curiosity. Could you post the math that makes you state doing what I did is mathematically impossible? I suspect you’re making assumptions that aren’t necessarily valid. That said there are likely to be good things I can learn from the proof.

Oddly, I don’t feel I need to SS it. I did, it’s been a while, and you may believe it or not as you see fit. It was not easy.

I’ll say that Prince was not that bad. The ones that suck at that heal level are Illhoof and Nightbane. Oh, and lest I forget… Aran’s Shade. (I’ve been trying to put that stumbling block out of mind for a while. yech.)

But IF the rest of your group is well geared – not post-SSC, but regulars in kara – then an 850 can be MT healer, provided they’ve got a lot of skill and such.

honestly, if you go 3 healers wipes are very few ad far between, but 2 healers has its risks on ilhoof (fortunately we were running 3 1k+healers so all was fine and dandy, but i was sacked twice consecutively and would hate to have been the only other healer there) though its generally fine. 3healers has issues on prince, as the infernals start to stack up (we get to 7 easy as pie, and its a dps race to down him, beyond imagining) in my opinion, if you got real well geared healers, take 2 and switch them off based on what gear drops from the boss, but if u got a newish group, you should run 3 healers, just for safety

also a note-pvp gear is a very easy way to get +healing and a nice mana pool, and is good for clearing trash, but almost anything 68+, blue, and having spi&+heals will improve your boss healing (some s3/4 pieces, such as pants and neck have mp5, these will likely outdo your blues, but kara pieces defeat even s4 always (there may be a desperate need for stam or int which MAY make an s4 piece better, but past that take the kara epic)

now for the POV:
i have done at least 600 instances across the board, probly 450 being priest healer, BUT, i have run kara only once (yeah, 1.15k +heals and was surprised when i saw the chessboard) this kara info is based on me asking questions, reading, extensive 5man experience, and one kara run (minus netherspite) so, correct as needed, but still take as 90%+fact

About…

I've experience with many priests of many races and specs on several servers. The more I play, the more I realize how much I do not yet know. This is a share of some of what I have learned.
My main these days is Zingiber on the Undermine server.